Teacher sentenced for sex with 14-year-old student

The twenty-seven-year-old, former school teacher from Florida in the United States entered a guilty plea in October to one felony count of a lewd or lascivious sex act with a child, and another felony charge of transmission of harmful material to minors by electronic means.

The judge, Seventh Judicial Circuit Court Judge Paul Zambrano handed down the three-year sentence after a successful negotiation by Peterson’s defence, which managed to get the prosecution to agree to come down from the minimum sentence of five years that they had initially requested.

The breakdown of the sentence means she will serve 36 months for the battery sex act felony, while the judge ruled that Peterson’s time was served for the harmful transmission crime.

On top of the custodial sentence she will also have to sign the sex offenders’ register for five years and spend two years under house arrest upon her release from prison.

Given a chance to defend herself, Peterson said:

“Every day I wish I could scream, ‘I’m sorry.’

“There are not enough words to describe the amount of remorse I feel for what had taken place.

“Sorry doesn’t even begin to sum up my emotions. I will continue to be sorry until the day I die.”